OUGD601- Dissertation Research - Blank Packaging

One aspect that is relative to my dissertation topic is the branding of cigarette packaging, which changed earlier this year. I may not include this in my dissertation, as it is not directly linked to social media; however, it is one aspect that could be considered in terms of the practical.

Blank Alcohol Packaging:

As of May 2017, cigarette packaging has been sold in standardised green packaging bearing graphic warnings of the dangers of smoking. This was implemented to try and prevent young people from taking up the habit, and to cut the number of smokers across the EU by 2.4 million. An estimated 700,000 premature deaths are caused each year by smoking, and cancer charities are backing the measures.

In terms of the results of such changes to packaging, it is difficult to judge; however, The Guardian have reported that the group behind the Londis and Budgens convenience store chains say that tobacco sales have plunged since the new rules came into force.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health, stated that 'while it will be many years before we see the full impact of plain packaging policy today’s results show that removing glitzy visual tobacco branding and focusing on the disastrous health impacts of smoking has been an important public health measure.'

In terms of alcohol, the dangers are as important to show as those caused by smoking. Alongside consumption levels rising, the number of hotel admissions related to alcohol hit ‘a record 1,059,210 in 2013/14’ with a ‘115% rise on a decade ago’ (IAS, 2015, p14). In a parliamentary manifesto, it has also been highlighted that 'rates of liver disease in those under 30 have more than doubled over the last 20 years (Channel 4, 2014).

Because of this, there have been calls for alcohol packaging to be standardised too.

Whilst there have been calls for changes in alcohol packaging, many people have been against the idea. A few points made on the matter can be read below:

'Branding, design and packaging are critical to our ability to make informed choices about what we drink (not to mention the jobs they provide). If improving health is the goal, education is the way forward; not the blunt tool of plain packaging.' (Jamie Fleming, head of copy, Purple Creative)

'The vast majority of alcohol brands are selling so much more than just a drink. They represent a taste, a feeling, an ethos, a personality or even a way of life. Purchasing an alcoholic brand is as much an emotional choice as a thirsty one, where consumers come to love and trust a brand by resonating with the story it tells. By stripping brands of the ability to express their own unique personality, they run the risk of becoming simply ‘booze’. (Richard Burhouse, commercial director, API)

The marketing of alcohol can be quite complex in comparison to smoking; there is much more advertising on social media in regards to alcohol than there is tobacco. A solution to packaging could be one interesting idea to explore in the practical side of my project; however, purely brand packaging may not be entirely effective.



Sources:

https://www.channel4.com/news/alcohol-label-warning-harm-tobacco-graphic-quiz
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/14/new-cigarette-rules-slump-sales-londis-booker
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/27/plain-cigarette-packaging-could-drive-300000-britons-to-quit-smoking
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/features/comment/the-big-question/the-big-question-will-alcohol-be-next-for-plain-packs-05-01-2017

OUGD601 - Dissertation Quotes To Incorporate

Below are some quotes found that need to be incorporated into Chapter 3 of my essay:

‘most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action’ (Bandura, p22). 

‘Wyllie et al., (1998) examined the nature of relationships between the responses of 10 to 17 year-olds to alcohol advertisements and their drinking behaviour as well as future drinking expectancies. Positive responses to the advertisements increased the frequency of current drinking and expected future drinking’ (2001). 

‘60% of game participants felt pressure to participate from others, while 50% reported that they had placed pressure on others to participate. In addition, half of the participants reported an adverse outcome following participation - with 89% having experienced or witnessed alcohol-related loss of consciousness’ (2015, p73). 

‘early adolescents are found to be more susceptible than mid-adolescents to peer pressure and have a decreased ability to resist’ (Mu, Moore and LeWinn, 2015). 

‘Parents potentially influence adolescents' activity choices and occupational identities through their roles as interpreters of reality and providers of experiences for their children’ (Jodl, Michael, Malanchuk, Eccles and Sameroff, 2001, p1248).

OUGD601 - Practical - Research

Research - Informed by my argument made in the dissertation a variety of primary research was made, looking at alcohol brands on social media and areas focusing around marketing and responsibility.

Alcohol Adverts:

The discussion in Chapter 3 of my dissertation made it clear that alcohol responsibility adverts tend to use two particular approaches. They either use role models in an attempt to try and make people model their behaviour - drink responsibly if their role model is. Or, they show a rewarding quality to make people identify a positive outcome with responsible drinking. Two examples of this can be seen below.

Whilst this is true for many ads, some adverts use different approaches; however, I have yet to find a responsible drinking advert that visually explains the dangers of drinking through the use of infographics and visual facts. Drinkaware's website, later analysed, is fantastic at explaining responsible drinking in this sense; but, they have yet to put the information on their site into an advert. This is one aspect that informed some of the initial ideas.

Facebook Pages

In my written dissertation I analysed the social media pages of the top 10 valued alcohol brands in the UK to see whether there is a similar trend in terms of responsibility messages shown. As seen in the images below, only 5/10 companies included ‘drinkaware.co.uk’ on their graphics (indicated by purple arrows). Overall, the type size is very small in comparison to the brand names and slogans. Whilst they include a reference to ‘drinkaware.co.uk’, they do not actually define or encourage responsible drinking through their graphics at all. The other 5/10 brands do not include ‘drinkaware.co.uk’ or anything linked to responsible drinking at all; their graphics are purely promotional. James Nicholls supports this, highlighting how 'no Facebook post explicitly recommend[s] moderate or responsible drinking.'

The message and visual clearness of drinking responsibly is one aspect that I identified to be clearly lacking on social networks. As alcohol brands encourage consumption they should aim to put more of an effort into ensuring their consumers are drinking responsibly. This prompted further research into marketing methods online and the tools alcohol brands have access to on their social media pages.

Marketing Methods That Aren't Being Used:

As the social media usage of alcohol brands has been briefly analysed in my written dissertation and earlier practical research, it has been identified that a variety of social media marketing methods have not been used to promote responsibility. There are numerous new marketing methods that could be used by brands to possibly improve the responsibility of consumers and users online. These were found from primary research and experience with marketing my music online. 

Chatbots

On some business pages, an automated chat is opened between the user and the company when the user clicks 'message'. Detonate, a music festival, has been used as an example. When clicking 'message' on their page, a chat opens. From here, you can click 'Get Started', which leads to an automated message with options being sent to you. Once an option is clicked, another automated message is sent, and the process continues. This is one way to improve interaction with users and is much more effective than suggesting to visit a website through cover photos.

No alcohol page uses such feature, which is surprising as they will have access to use it. It could be used to encourage automated conversations about drinking safely with users online.

Sponsored Post CTAs

Call-to-action buttons on Facebook are widely used when sponsoring a post. They direct users to another page and are a great way to link the post/advertisement and consumer with the product. A few of the example posts found from primary research on Facebook and Instagram use 'Follow', 'Learn More' and 'Book Now' (seen below); yet, there are many other options available. 

Looking through Stella Artois and Smirnoff's Facebook pages (the top 2 UK brands), none of their posts utilise CTA's. This may be because they are not sponsored; however, no links to responsibility messages or Drinkaware have been made. This could be easily improved by utilising Facebooks existing CTA options.

Custom Page Tabs

Custom page tabs are great way to add extra sections to your Facebook page. All Facebook pages come with the standard set of tabs, including 'Home', 'About', 'Photos', 'Videos', 'Notes', 'Posts' and 'Community'; however, companies have the ability to add their own custom sections in Facebook's settings.

You can display pretty much any content that you'd like inside a custom Facebook tab. You do this by creating a web page outside of Facebook. The contents of this page are what you'll tell Facebook to display within your custom tab.

Taking a look at the top 5 UK alcohol brands, only 2/5 use custom tabs - Smirnoff and Carlsberg. Out of the 2, only Carlsberg displays the 'House Rules' clearly. This is essentially the rules that Carlsberg have set for their users involvement with the brand online.  

Looking at the rules tab, there is a lot if information. Yet, despite it all, there is still no dedicated responsible drinking information section. The Drinkaware section simple lists the website and 'for the facts' below.

As none of the pages have tabs for Drinkaware, this could be one aspect that is explored in the idea generation stage, as it could make the facts easier and more direct for users to find.

Drinkaware Website:

The Drinkaware site has a huge range of information on it, explaining the health risks associated with drinking and much more. It has a calculator to find out whether you drinking too much and the entire site is clearly sectioned into various areas and topics.

Drinkaware have managed to break down a lot of the information regarding how much you should drink per week into clean, colourful and simple infographics. Their calculators all follow a similar style and are very easy to use. Interestingly, Drinkaware have not made any adverts that focus on the health risks of drinking or the weekly limit. This inspired one of the ideas in the idea generation stage.

As outcomes needed to link directly with Drinkaware, an analysis of their graphics was made in order to keep consistency with their current style. By looking at their website and YouTube videos, I was able to identify their logo, breakdown a colour scheme, determine the typefaces they use and judge the overall style of illustrations. These aspects were used to inform digital designs made later in the process.

What Appeals To Younger Audiences? 

To find out what appeals to young people on social media, some primary research was made. Firstly, I asked a group of 18-21 year olds about what they think is current and grabs their attention on sites such as Facebook. The feedback given highlighted that bright, high-contrast colours, fast transitions and high-quality videos are the most popular aspects of content. In terms of videos people said that the visual content is much more important than aspects such as the typed descriptions and audio. This informed many of the design choices and ideas in the following stages.

OUGD601 - Relevant Dissertation Images

Some images that I have found from a wide range of research can be seen below. They all relate to my dissertation question in different ways. I'm going to try and incorporate them into my essay and use them in my list of images.

OUGD601 - Tutorial Feedback

I gained a lot of feedback on my essay regarding areas that I could look at and research into. The main points noted that will be used moving forward can be seen below.

OUGD601 - Practical - Brief Construction

Initially, alongside writing my dissertation, I generated a range of ideas as to what I could do for the practical side of this module; however, after coming to a conclusion in my essay, I found that irresponsible drinking has more to do with how there is a lack of control over young people on social media sites because of lacking age restrictions than the marketing of alcohol brands online. This inspired and informed the main brief set for the practical.

The analysis of Facebook posts and inclusion of 'Drinkaware.co.uk' in brand cover photos in Chapter 1.2 of my dissertation highlighted how there is no effective awareness about drinking responsibly on social media. Successful ad campaigns have been made; however, the actual pages of brands and their posts are lacking in relation.

Inspired by the clarity and huge range of alcohol information on Drinkaware's website, it seemed appropriate to create a brief that revolves around them. The brief constructed is as follows:

'In relation to other social media sites, alcohol brands put the most amount of funding into Facebook. As there is a lack of information regarding responsible drinking and alcohol on brand pages and posts, produce a range of outcomes, linked to Drinkaware, that resolve and improve user accessibility and awareness within Facebook.

Aim to produce outcomes that are effective, easy to implement and successful in educating people about responsible alcohol use. Try to make resolutions appeal to all, but try to ensure that young people will be engaged with outcomes.'


To ensure that I managed my time throughout this module, I kept a time schedule updated online. This gave me deadlines to work towards and ensured that I had work to get feedback on in tutorials. The time schedule can be seen below.